A Startling Confession
by Phyre Melody
Summary: Part two of the 'Startling' series. What it was like through his eyes.


I had never appreciated the color blue before. I used to think that it was the dullest hue on the palette. It was the color of the sky, the ocean, my eyes…

She had told me a long time ago that I had nice eyes. She was so young back then, and naïve. It had never occurred to her that leaning so close to my face could make my heart rate quicken. It had never occurred to me back then what that feeling meant.

The summer after the twins' first year was pure hell, to say the least. They had invited a young female version of them to spend the summer at the Burrow. Mother liked her well enough, but I didn't approve. That unscrupulous, conniving little fox had always found ways to annoy me and always did it at the twins' bidding. She even went so far as to dip my glasses in a potion overnight that caused them to be covered in pink fuzz. Mother had nearly choked on her coffee at the sight of me and Charlie and Ginny snorted into their plates. The girl, Antawnia, tried to make a mad dash for the door, but I pursued her and tackled her just as she made it past the threshold. She squealed and swatted at me, knocking my pink-fuzzed glasses off. She stopped and gazed at me like a curious kitten would and told me that I had nice eyes. I just waved it off as another one of her random thoughts.

Over the next year I rarely met up with Antawnia unless she was with the twins. She had started a rather annoying habit of calling me 'Perce' every chance that she got. If a teacher was looking for me in the hallway, she'd say "Perce Weasley? He's over there." It had gotten so extreme that I found myself looking up when girls would talk about their purses.

She visited again the summer before my fifth year. I had not expected her to arrive so early in the morning, but sure enough, she was sitting there at the table. The twins could sneer all they wanted, but from then on I dressed before coming to breakfast.

She had changed since I had last seen her. She acted a little bit more mature and a lot quieter. Some evenings I would find her sitting in the garden picking at a guitar or just star gazing like I always did. We seldom talked and when we did, it was only a comment on a constellation or to say goodnight. It felt nice to have a quiet evening with her without having to worry about being ambushed in one way or another. I had always thought of her as some hyperactive kitten bent on getting on my last nerve. But then I saw that she could be calm and thoughtful like me.

Two weeks later we got our Hogwarts letters and I was made a Prefect. Mother and Father were so proud, and the twins flashed their stupid evil grins. Only the thought that I now had authority over them at school comforted me. I was also one step closer to becoming the next Minister of Magic. If only I could win an award for special services to the school or secure the Head Boy badge would be my ticket to glory. It turned out that the twins and Antawnia had a lot in store for me that year and I have several memories of taking points and lecturing them on various misdemeanors.

It was during a lecture, actually, when I truly started to realize that there was more to Antawnia than meets the eye. I was often in the library after classes, catching up on reading or doing schoolwork and noticed that Antawnia was often there with her two Chaser friends. They were politely studious in their work except for random odd intervals when Antawnia would make a noise of pain. I would look up temporarily to see if there was a problem and all I could see was her glaring at her friends, who had their noses in their books, seemingly oblivious. She was alone one time, and I had to lecture her on the history of the misuse of potions because she couldn't seem to focus. I noticed that when I got to the part about love potions, her face immediately turned red and she licked her lips nervously. My gaze flickered a little from her eyes to those lips but I covered it by pretending to look amused. I only talked to her occasionally after that incident due to my...ahem...relationship with Penelope Clearwater. It was short-lived, however, and we parted ways after school because I had my job at the Ministry and she had gotten a job at a well-to-do office and was working her way up the business ladder. To be honest, it had started to seem like I was dating the female equivalent of me.

I still saw Antawnia at random intervals. The summer after I left school my family and I went to the Quidditch World Cup. It had been purely business until I saw her approaching through the crowd. I felt my heart beat quicken and it reminded me of that young girl leaning towards me and complimenting my eyes. I busied myself with the tea kettle as she exchanged pleasantries with the twins, aware of my heart pounding in my ears the entire time. It was the first time in a while that I had been too scared to act.

Mr. Crouch, my boss, fell ill during the Christmas holidays and chose me to represent him in the Yule Ball at Hogwarts. I sat inconspicuously at the champion's table watching the students and their dates file into the Great Hall. Antawnia had her arm looped loosely with George's and I was pleasantly surprised to see her wearing blue. I watched her for a little while as they danced and for an instance our eyes met and she stumbled, stepping on George's foot. She looked happy as she danced during the first half, but George abandoned her to pester poor Ludo.

After calming myself down for a few songs, I asked her to dance and she accepted. I found myself talking but not fully registering what was really said, but I knew I had told her that she was beautiful. We danced for the rest of the night and chatted. It turned out that she wanted to be a writer and author all kinds of books. She looked forward to doing research and getting facts straight by experiencing things first hand. I nodded in approval and offered to take her to her common room, as my brother had long forgotten her. She slipped her arm through mine and we made our way through the castle. As she talked, my eyes strayed down to her lips, but she didn't seem to notice. I was mesmerized by her, thought I didn't trust myself to act.

I stopped her in the Fat Lady's corridor and took her hands. All I remember after that was that she said she had a wonderful time and to call her Tawny...I tried the name out on my lips and found that I liked it...but there was more that I wanted to try out on my lips...

...and I did...and found that I liked it.

END.


End file.
